- If you want to get pitiful looks, take a big envelope, put a christmasy sticker on it and wait in line at the post office on the 23rd. (Nope, I wasn't waiting in line to mail someone's Christmas present in the vaine hope it might still arrive in time ... the envelope contained something someone ordered from me on a swapping site and I just put the sticker on because I had some left over from my Christmas mail)

- This year, my selfmade presents are mostly made from old, obsolete money (jewellery, keychains and stuff ...). I had no idea how much of it there is until I started to look through my stash of coins and discretely asked friends and family if they could provide some. And it's not just money that has been replaced by the Euro either. I have coins from England and Switzerland too that are no longer in use. Also, Ireland did have the prettiest money.

- And here's some homemade ginger bread, before everyone descended on it.